So, this is an extra long post for two reasons... I couldn't find an appropriate place to stop in this chapter and, I thought you would hate me less for giving you a longer post because I am going to be taking a break. To be perfectly honest with you, I had a bit of a nervous break down the other day. The stresses of the wedding planning are starting to really get to be, it's more of a financial hardship as I'm sure many of you have experienced, I got pulled over by the police for failing to give way... to the police man. Fortunately, he was very kind and let me off on a warning but not before telling me how much the cost of the fine would have been. Anyway, I need to take some time for myself and focus more on life and whatnot. In saying all of that, I am not giving up on this story, not at all! You have all been wonderful in encouraging me to write and give helpful advice about things that could improve the story, for which I am very grateful. So I am writing more, I just won't be updating every day. Possibly maybe, once a week. I am also in the process of having the story edited with Project Team Beta and am updating the beginning chapters as I go.

I'm not giving up on this story, so please don't give up on me. :)

"I don't know if it's about me being sensitive or you just being so…" Bella couldn't quite think of the word to describe Edward. Talented? It didn't seem to do him justice, not after the way he'd made her feel. She let her sentence trail off, her eyes lifted to meet his and she smiled at the smug, almost proud look he had on his face.

A sudden thought came to her as she wondered if perhaps she'd been too loud. Would Rosalie and Alice have heard? She realized that her bedroom was right next door to Edward's. "Did you know that my bedroom is on the other side of this wall?"

She tried to remember if she'd ever heard him talking but realized he lived alone and didn't even have a cat to keep him company, therefore she would not have heard him talking at all. Her eyes widened as she wondered if he had heard her!

"I touch myself sometimes, late at night… Have you ever heard?"

Edward's grip tightened at her words, his eyes practically smoldering in the darkness as he stared across at Bella's ever open, upturned face. One would think she would have realized by now how strongly her words affected him. Why, if wasn't for the fact that they'd just finished having one of the most intensive sex sessions he'd ever had, he would have flipped her over and ravished her all over again…

"No." He said finally, the desire evident in his voice as he appraised Bella with hungry eyes. "I don't think I have. Not that I can remember."

And a damn shame it was too. Although, he doubted he would have been able to restrain himself if he knew that only a thin wall separated him from a very wet, eager Bella.

"Although now that you mention it, I'll be sure to pay closer attention." Edward's gaze caressed her naked body. His now, he thought rather possessively. "And I'm hoping that when I do listen in next time…" his hands trailed over her hips to the smooth curve of her ass, cupping the warm flesh in the palm of his hands. He leant in to kiss her neck as he growled, "That it's me you'll be thinking of… And my name you'll be crying out."

Bella giggled softly, she knew full well what her words would do to Edward and loving every second of it. She snuggled deeper into his embrace, his hands continued to rub at her skin, warming her body. She loved this, just holding each other. She'd never had this before and her eyes closed wistfully as she imagined herself in his embrace every night.

"This is nice... " She murmured, almost sadly, knowing how pathetic she was to find such comfort here. "No one's ever held me like this before."

"What about all those scores of men you used to brag about taking to your bed before?" Edward asked her, his eyebrows rose as he leant back from kissing her shoulder.

"Don't tell me they've never touched you like this." Bella had always been frank about how experienced she was. Judging from what the other girls teased her about, she seemed to depend on it, in fact, to help write the articles she covered at work. As such, he found her statement a little hard to believe.

He couldn't imagine any men who could take Bella to bed and walk away not madly infatuated with her.

"Sorry, sweetheart. But I don't think I believe you." He murmured as his lips brushed over the tip of her nose. In the moonlight, he could see the faint outline of freckles on the back of her shoulder that he'd never noticed before. How could he have missed that about her?

Edward frowned. He would kiss every one of them and commit them to memory, he decided.

Bella managed a smile, although it didn't quite reach her eyes, though she doubted Edward would see the sadness there, the room was dark save for a curtain partly open, the only light spilling through coming from a near full moon and the street lights. "Wow, Edward. Way to make me feel good about myself." Of course she was jesting, but she still felt regret over the amount of men she'd slipped between the sheets with. But even though it was clear she was joking, Edward still opened his mouth to backtrack. "I'm kidding with you, it's fine." She ran a hand down his arm, reassuringly.

She sighed and leaned back so that her head was on the pillow, she stared up at the ceiling. "Truthfully, I never stuck around for cuddling afterward... I've never wanted to... Until now. I..." She broke off suddenly. She'd never given herself so completely to anyone. She'd given her body, but she'd never given her heart. Bella began to wonder if this was what it felt like to fall for someone.

"Besides, the men I've been with aren't the kind of men you cuddle with afterward." Bella knew what she was saying made her seem cheap and slutty. She pulled away from Edward, suddenly disgusted with herself.

Edward frowned. He knew what Bella was saying, could understand it at least. It didn't make him happy to think about the other guys she had been with before him, and especially more so to think that they might have been people she would have taken home with her from work. But more than any of that, Edward didn't like how Bella tried to pull herself away from him now.

"Hey, now. Don't do that." He admonished her. His hand reached out to curl around her wrist, tightening and drawing her back to him again.

"Maybe not," he agreed, referring to the men she'd mentioned. "But I hope you're not thinking of grouping me with the rest of them."

Edward's face had sobered as his other hand reached up to stroke the hair back from her face.

"No… you're different." Bella smiled at him reassuringly. He was far different to any man she'd been with before. He was in a different league entirely to Riley. And this was why she felt so unsure of herself around him. No man had ever made her feel this confused about how she felt. She'd always managed to keep her thoughts clear; she always knew that emotion would never cloud her actions. Sex was sex. And that was that. No strings attached. No dinner dates, no flowers, no cuddling. It had always been about scratching an itch she couldn't reach herself.

And now Edward was giving her something different. Because he was different.

Their eyes connected and they both felt something palpable, a tension that neither had felt before in her life.

Edward broke the silence. "Bella… I need to tell you something".

Bella's eyebrows rose and she adjusted herself to give space between them. He looked serious, something had changed in his demeanor and she felt suddenly nervous, although she couldn't know why.

"What?"

"In the hospital… You might not remember this… You were pretty drugged up on morphine, you see." He gazed at her face. "You were talking to Rose and Alice and you were talking about me. You said that I was your hero… That I saved you. Saved you from falling off the balcony, saved you from the wreck of the car… And that I saved you from Riley."

Bella's breath hitched in her throat as she realized what he was saying.

She'd denied that Riley had anything to do with this when he had asked her. But she'd said it to protect him.

"You need to tell me the truth. I looked into him Bella… My family has a personal investigator and he's got a very shady background. No formal criminal history but he's had a lot of run ins with the police. They watch him closely… If you had enough evidence you could take it to them, they might be able to bring you down."

Bella shook her head. "Edward… No, I can't. There's more to it than just Riley. There are others… I don't know for sure, but I get this feeling that he's working for someone much bigger up. And he has contacts. People that know about me." If she gave Riley to the police, then they would find her. They would find Edward, Rose, Alice… Everyone she cared about. She couldn't risk it.

"Edward. Promise me you won't do anything. Please."

Edward was silent for a long time; he looked into her beseeching eyes.

"Okay. I promise."

"But you have to be completely honest with me. Please. Let me help you."

She nodded and Edward pulled her tightly. They lay like that for quite some time and Edward thought that Bella must have fallen asleep but eventually she asked, "What is your family like? You hardly ever talk about them."

If Edward was surprised by her sudden, seemingly out-of-nowhere question, he didn't show it. "There's not much to talk about." He said instead. But then he hesitated. Perhaps if he made an attempt at sharing some of his own history with Bella, she would be more willing to do the same for him as well.

"Well… I grew up not too far from here in Seacliff. I was an only child. Nice house, lots of space to run around… no pets though. Mom was allergic." Edward started slowly, tracing light patterns on Bella's skin. "My father worked a lot, so I didn't see much of him. He's one of the managing directors for the Wells Fargo bank… had to travel around a lot, home late." He shrugged.

"We weren't close. So it was mostly just me and my mom. She was amazing." The corners of his mouth lifted in a smile as he reflected, "You would have liked her. Everyone did. She had this laugh, and this smile… and her eyes… when she was happy; it showed on every bit of her. She had this way of walking into a room and just making it all light up, you know?"

"Life was good. It was all good." Edward paused rather wistfully and then shook his head. "But then my father decided that I needed a little more discipline… some structure to help tap into my potential. I was already a good student at a good school, but he wanted more. He wanted the best, always the best for his son." He said a little bitterly.

"So he sent me to boarding school. It was far enough away that I couldn't come home very often, except for the breaks. My mum got sick a year after that." He grew quiet, his eyes dropping down to their linked hands.

"Are you cold?" Edward murmured. He didn't wait for her answer as he reached down to pull the thin comforter over the two of them, taking care to smoothen it over Bella's bare shoulders.

Bella's eyes grew sadder as Edward continued on, going into some detail about how things were for him as a child. How he'd been sent away, she knew what it was like to have an absent father. While her own father had been present when he was alive, she'd lost him at an early age and she'd missed him. The same could be said for her mother, and Edward had lost her too. She knew that much from flashes of conversation here and there.

"I'm sorry..." she murmured. She wanted to ask if he'd been able to say goodbye to her before his mother had passed but she stopped herself from asking.

She'd cooled down from their strenuous activities from before, but she wasn't feeling cold now. Still, Edward pulled the comforter so that it was covering both of them. "Thanks..." she said quietly.

"Do you still see much of your family?" she asked him after a short pause.

Edward rested his head back against the pillow, one arm curling loosely around Bella's waist as he listened to her question. "Not really. My father remarried before I finished college. And after all the money he spent putting me through college, only to have me decide to dedicate my life to being a firefighter…" he trailed off and shook his head. "He wasn't too… pleased."

That was one way of putting it at least.

"Angela's nice though…" he paused. "But having me around has always rocked the family boat, so to speak, so I try to stay away. She's got two sons of her own, and a daughter. My stepsiblings. The eldest, Marcus, he works with my father. A few years older than us… pompous little git." Edward's lip curled in an obvious dislike.

"There's Alec. He's working in Brussels at the moment and doesn't visit very often. And there's Lizzie." His eyes softened. If there was any person in his family that Edward was fond of, it was his stepsister Elizabeth. She was sweet, a little naïve like her mother, but good. He told this now to Bella and added, "She's in her second year of college. I see her for lunch sometimes and she comes over every now and then. I think you've bumped into her once when she was leaving here…" he paused, frowning in thought. "Or maybe that was Rosalie?"

"But no. Apart from Janie, I don't see them really except for special occasions like Christmas. We prefer it that way, I think. It's better. We're all happier that way." Edward frowned again. "I'm far closer with Emmett and his family. They're as good as family to me now."

"Rosalie and her family are the same for me," Bella said quietly.

"Yeah? That's good."

He took a deep breath and forced himself to dispel the clouds that came along with reflecting back on these thoughts. He tried to smile at Bella, leaning down to kiss her on the forehead. "Like I said. There isn't that much to tell," he said gently. He watched her for a moment, wondering what thoughts were going through her head right now. What did she think of him? But somehow Edward had a feeling that she wouldn't say, even if he asked.

"What about you?" he asked. "Are you… are you close with your foster parents still? You don't have siblings right?"

She admired him, it was clear to her that even though he also had a fucked up family life, that at least he wasn't fucked up himself. Not like she was.

Bella's body visibly tensed at the mention of her foster parents and she frowned. "No… I don't talk to them anymore. I haven't since I left home. And I was an only child…" She said nothing more than that. She'd runaway before she'd turned seventeen and nobody had bothered to try and find her. The police weren't called, no search party was made; it had been so easy to escape.

It was easy to escape when you weren't missed in the first place.

Silence stretched out between them before Edward finally asked, "Why did you leave home?"

A lie came to her lips; it would be easy to lie and say that she'd gotten sick of living in a family she didn't belong to. That life on the streets seemed more appealing to her that she wanted to be her own person, to rebel. She could say a number of things that were semi-truths but not tell him the real reason she'd left. No one knew the real reason.

But in that instant she found that she wanted to tell him. She'd kept things to herself for so long. And hadn't Edward just revealed a part of his past to her? He'd opened up to her, had told her things about himself that he usually kept to himself…

Another long silence stretched out between them but Edward remained patient, waiting for her to answer.

Bella swallowed, her eyes fixed on his chest, and she wouldn't look at him. But his hands rubbed her naked skin soothingly and it was that gesture that helped her open up to him.

"I wasn't the only kid my foster parents took in. There were two younger girls, me and another boy who was around my age. My foster parents liked the benefits the government gave for taking in children of the state. So they took in as many as they could manage… We were supposed to see each other as brothers and sisters but I never saw them as that. I tried to keep to myself as much as possible." Bella took a deep breath. Having started talking about her past, the memories had flickered back to her.

"One night, our 'parents' had gone out for the evening, the girls had gone to some sleep over and I was watching television in the living room by myself… My… brother…" Bella broke off; Edward's hands had tightened infinitesimally on her waist as if knowing where this was leading.

"He came into the room and sat down on the couch…" Unable to continue with the lead up of the story, she shook her head and tried to turn away from Edward, but he wouldn't let her go.

"He tried to rape me."

There was a sharp intake of breath at Bella's words and she tried to pull herself away, probably knowing the effect that this would have on him, but he didn't let her. If anything, Edward's grip tightened as he held on.

"Tried?" He managed finally, having found his voice. "He didn't rape you… right? You fought back?"

He hoped to God that she had. Or that by some divine intervention, her foster parents had returned. Something, anything.

Bella sighed and nodded. Her foster brother had come on to her, had told her that she was gorgeous, and that he hadn't been able to keep himself from thinking about her… She supposed that he was trying to flatter her, but all he'd done was gross her out. Weren't they supposed to be 'brother and sister'?

He'd managed to get on top of her, had pinned her to the cushions of the couch, he'd used his weight to his advantage. She'd struggled, had screamed and fought him by trying to kick him off.

Terror had gripped her when he'd ripped her pajama buttons off and had torn the shirt from her, exposing her. At that point she'd managed to get a hand free enough to punch him in the groin.

"Yeah... I managed to fight him off."

"And you ran away after that?" Edward said finally.

She nodded. "I locked myself in my room. Waited until I heard my foster parents get back. And in the middle of the night, I left."

He wrapped his arms around Bella and pressed his lips to her forehead. Hearing her tell this to him… it sent a shiver down his back, knowing about this piece of her past. He hoped that she had had hurt him, this boy who was supposed to be her brother, living with them in the place she had made her home, who had tried to force himself onto Bella like that. More than ten years had probably passed since that boy had touch her, but Edward swore that if he were to come across him tomorrow, he would still give him the thrashing of his life.

"I don't like it." He said quietly, "Knowing how these people have hurt you." His hands stroked back the hair from her face in a soothing gesture, as he looked down at her, his eyes soft and serious.

Bella shrugged. "It's in the past. You learn to move on from those sorts of things." Life was better now than it had been before; well it had been, up until Riley had entered her life again. But that would soon all be over.

She closed her eyes not wanting to continue talking about her sordid past any longer. She wondered if she'd be able to sleep in Edward's arms like this, it felt so intimate to be here, more intimate than sex. At least with sex, she could pretend that it was nothing more than a release for both of them. With this, it was much more. She'd let her guard down around him. She'd never done that with anyone before, not even her best friend, Rosalie. And Rosalie knew more about her than anyone else did. Now it could be argued that it was Edward who knew more.

When had her life changed so much that she found herself coming to this man instead? "Why do you care so much, Edward?" she murmured, her voice was slurred from drowsiness.

It was getting late and she had had a long day. But as tired as Edward himself was, he couldn't quite shake his mind off of the things that Bella had confided in him tonight. It wasn't quite true what she had said, he realized. About the bad things being in the past. Because they weren't.

Not for Bella.

The bad things had followed her even to here and now. All the shit she had to deal with her foster family was one thing, but what she was being forced to do with Riley was something else entirely. And for as long as she owed him that debt, she wouldn't be able to sever those ties with her past. She wouldn't ever be free. It was a long while before he could come up with an answer for her question.

"Because you deserve more, Bella." He said at last, his hand brushing against her cheek. "You deserve more than this. You deserve a good life, a happy one. And I-" his eyes softened as he realized, "I want to be the one to give you that."

And the more he thought about it, the more he knew it to be true. Edward saved people every day. When lives were at stake, when people were hurt. But what about Bella? He remembered the people who had hurt her; those nights he'd heard her crying from the other side of the wall… He couldn't take her past away from her. But he could make sure that she would never have to feel that way again.

"Bella?" Edward said quietly when the moment had past and she had still yet to respond. It was then he glanced down to see that she had in fact, fallen asleep and had probably never even heard his answer to her question. He shook his head and leaned down to kiss her cheek before tucking the covers around them. "Good night, Bella."

Please see my authors note at the beginning, it might have been a bit TLDR, but it gives you an indication on where I am with updating this story. Thanks.

Tell me what you thought of Bella's back story!